If you are tired of wearing glasses or contacts, it’s likely you’ve considered LASIK. LASIK has the potential to change your life and how you see the world! 
It is a short outpatient procedure with a high success rate and a short and painless recovery. But not every person who wants LASIK should get it! Keep reading to learn if you could be a good LASIK

candidate!

Healthy Eyes

To be a good candidate for LASIK, your eyes must be healthy and free of complications. Any sort of infection or injury will need to be under control or healed before surgery.  
If you are someone with chronic dry eye, LASIK can make this even worse. This is one of the conditions that must be under control before you can get LASIK! 

Healthy Body

It’s important to make sure your eyes can heal easily without complications.  Any sort of illness or disease that could make it hard to heal may make you a bad LASIK candidate. 

Corneal Thickness

Because of the nature of LASIK, it’s important to have thick enough corneas when you undergo LASIK. LASIK uses a laser to reshape and remove corneal tissue to correct refractive errors. 
If the cornea is too thin, you may not have enough tissue to safely reshape the cornea. For a similar reason, having a prescription that is within a certain limit is important as well. 
There is only a certain amount of reshaping that can happen during LASIK. If you find that your corneas are too thin, you may want to consider a procedure like PRK instead.

Stable Vision

To qualify for LASIK surgery, your vision and prescription needs to be stable for at least a year. You cannot get LASIK if you are under the age of 18 for this reason. 
Many LASIK surgeons recommend waiting to get LASIK until your mid-twenties. This is because your eyes are more likely to have stabilized by this time. 
You also shouldn’t get LASIK if you are pregnant, planning to become pregnant, or nursing. Like hormones during puberty, hormonal changes during pregnancy can affect your eyes. 

Be Prepared

Before any surgery, it’s important to have realistic expectations about the procedure. This means knowing what to expect during the procedure, and during recovery. 
Understanding what is going to take place during LASIK can help ease any anxiety you may have before it. It’s also important to have a good handle on what the recovery process is like. 
This way, if you do have any complications, you can catch them early on. 
Having an understanding of normal side effects will help dissuade any fear if you have them. When making the choice to have LASIK, it’s important to realize you may not have perfect vision. 
There are no guarantees that you will end up with 20/20 vision after LASIK but it is likely! After all, LASIK has a 96% success rate with patients who have undergone it.
Ready to find out if you could be a good candidate for LASIK? Schedule a LASIK consultation at Chesen Laser Eye Center in West Reading, PA today!